Transfer-sheet feed mechanism for typewriting, teleprinting, and like machines



1 2,216,409 Oct. 1, 1 40- H. ETHERIDGE TRANSFER-SHEET FEED MECHANISM FOR TYPEWRITING,

I I TELEPRINTING, .AND LIKE MACHINES Filed April 7, 1959 a Sheets-Sheet 1 M I w i w w n mm HII -Iw l l l l l I [m muflul flflnl mllll l llm mlllllllm WIHM WH w l I I I. II I. l n I/ I I F I m Oct. 1, 1940. H, ETHERIDGE' TRANSFER-SHEET FEED MECHANISM FOR TYPEWRI'IZING, TEL EPRINTING, AND LIKE MACHINES Filed April' I, 1939 SShBfs-Shaet 2 MS QM 2,216,409 Oct. 1, 1 40 H. ELTHERIDGE TRANSFER-SHEET FEED MECHANISM..FOR TYPEWRITING,

TELEPRINTING, AND LIKB'MACHINES Filed April 7, 1939 n 3 sheefiseshaet .5

Patented Oct. 1', 1940 UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE TRANSFER-SHEET FEED MECHANISM FOR TYPEWRITING, TELEPRINTING, AND

MACHINES LIKE Herbert Etheridge, Leicester, England, assignmto Imperial Typewriter Company Limited, Leicester, England, a British company Appiication April 7, 1939, Serial No. 266,675

, In Great Britain May 21, 1938 4 Claims. (01. 197-1) -the machine, and comprising intermittentlyoperated carbon-feed-means adapted at each operation thereof to feed a carbon through a controlled distance less than that through which the work sheets are moved, preferably through a distance'which is at least equal to, but does not substantially exceed the heightwise dimension of the tallest type characters of the machine.

Such transfer-sheet feed mechanism is particularly applicable for making a reverse master copy, as in the hectograph process, by placing in the typew'riting machine or the like, a special carbon sheet behind the work sheet with the transfer surface of the carbon against the work sheet. Heretofore, a supply roll of the carbon sheet has Toeen carried by a spindle connected by gearing to the line-spacing mechanism of the machine,

and after passing always in the same direction under the platen and across the printing point, the sheet was led out freely from the machine, a fresh supply roll being placed on the same spindle after the first roll was used up,

It is an object of the present invention to enable the carbon sheet to be rewound on the machine after use, and to arrange the feed of the master or work sheet in relation to that of the carbon sheet in an improved manner. It is to be understood that the term "carbon or carbon sheet used herein refers not only to sheets of paper coated with carbon, for duplicating purposes, but also to other kinds of transfer or duplicating sheets.

According to the present invention there is provided in or for use in a typewriting or like machine, feed-mechanism of the type described, wherein the carbon-feed means comprises two spindles, from one of which the carbon is to unwind, and about the other of which it is to be wound up after use at the platen of the machine, and the master-sheet feed-means arranged to feed a master sheet to line-space it comprises at least one feed roll arranged to lie, when in use, at or near the upper part of the platen above the writing line.

Preferably, the master-sheet feed-means com prises a pair of feed rolls that are carried by a pivoted member movable towards and away from the platen, and are arranged to be geared to the I platen to revolve at the same peripheral speed therewith.

Convenientlmthe said pivoted member is constituted by a U-shaped frame mounted to swing towards and away from the platen, and one of the feed rolls is provided at one end with a pinion arranged to mesh with a gear wheel on the spindie of the platen when the 'U-shaped frame is swung into its operative position.

An important advantage of the top feed of the master-sheet provided by the feed rolls arranged a as described above is that it enables typed matter to be written over almost the entire area of the master sheet, even to itsextreme bottom edge.

Connecting means that operatively connects the said carbon-feed means to the line-spacing mechanism of the machine may comprise manually-operable change-over mechanism arranged- When the take-up spool is filled with a used carbon and is removed from the machine, a. fresh supply spool can be placed on its spindle which,

when the change-over mechanism has been thrown over, will be a. supply spindle, and the fresh carbon sheet will be red in the opposite direction to the empty spool on the other spindle, whereby the manipulation of the machine is facilitated.

An idler roll, for facilitating the insertion of the master sheet, may be carried by said pivoted member and arranged'to lie, when in use, between the feed rolls and the typing line.

One embodiment of the invention is diagrammatically illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a front elevation showing a carriage.

typed being shown swung into their upper inoperative position in both of these Figures;

Figure 3 is an end elevation of the carriage shown in Figure 1, as viewed from the right-hand end thereof, but with the pair of feed rolls swung into their lower normal or operative position;

Figures 4 and 5 are vertical sectional elevations taken on the line 4-4 in Figure 1 but showing some of the parts'in difl'erent positions, and

Figures 6 and 7 are detail views inend elevation showing in different positions some of the parts illustrated in Figures 4 and 5.

Like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring :to the drawings, the carriage of a typewriting machine has a main framev that is movable endwise on a track (see Figure 3) provided on the body of the machine and comprises two end plates i2, i4 and a rear rod 15. A cylindrical platen l8 has its spindle l 9 journalled as usual in the plates i2, i4, and can be turned manually by knobs 28, 2| fast on the ends of the spindle 19. A spring-controlled line-space lever 22 is fulcrumed at 24 in a bracket 26 fast on the frame plate i2, and has a lever arm 28 for actuating the carbon-sheet feed means described hereinafter. A U-shaped frame comprising a front square rod 38, and two side limbs 3|, 32 carries two master-sheet feed rolls 34, 35 adjacent to 'the rod 35 to which a guide plate 36 is attached. Gne end of the roll 35 carries a pinion 38 that meshes with a spur gear 48 journalled on the side limb 32 in such a position that when the U-frame 34, 32, 33 is rocked downwards into its normal operative position shown in Figure 3, the wheel 49 meshes with a companion toothed wheel 42 that is fast on the spindle 19 of the platen at a situation between the knob 20 and the frame plate l4. Consequently, when either of the knobs 2B, 2! is turned for rotating the platen, the rolls 34, $35 which are pressed together by springs 44 are rotated and feed a master sheet shown at 43.

Feed mechanism for feeding a carbon sheet 45 to the platen 58 comprises intermittently operated feed means adapted at each operation thereof to feed a carbon through a distance which is at'least equal to, but does not substantially exceed the heightwise dimension of the tallest type character of the machine, and an operative connection is provided between said feed means and the linespacing mechanism of the machine. This'carbon -feed mechanism is in the form of an attachment that can be applied to the typewriting machine, and comprises, as illustrated, two end bearing plates 46, 48 which are-parallel to and respectively mounted on the frame plates 12 and I4. A pair of spools 55, 52 are respectively carried byspindies 54, 58 on which they are slidable endwise and can be fixed in their adjusted position by screws 58, which spindles are journalled in the plates 46, 48 so as to be removable therefrom. Referring to the upper spool 50, one end of its spindle extends through a hole at 68 in the plate 46, while its other end is received in an openended slot 62 (see Figure 3) in the plate 48, and is-retained therein by a pivoted catch 64 that has a notch for engaging the spindle and is held in its operative position by one end of a spring 66;

a similar manner.

the other end of this spring is attached to a similar catch 68 that secures one end of the spindle 56 of the other spool in position in the plate 48 in The upper spool 50 is'a feed spool from which the carbon 45 is fed to the lower or take-up spool 52 by a pawl-and-ratchet mechanism, described the slot 78 in the pawl 14.

2, 4 and 5, when the driving pawl 14 is in enwhich an opposed tooth pawl 14 can be placed at will into engagement. This pawl 14 has a slot 16 extending in the direction of its length, and is pivoted to swing about a pivot pin 18 constituted by a screw fast on a. lever 88 that is fulcrumed at 8| and forms part of a linkage connected to the line-space lever 22 of the machine. As shown most clearly in Figures 4 and 5, this linkage comprises a link 82 having one end pivotally connected at 83 to the lever 80, and its other end pivotaliy connected at 85 to the upper part of.

an upwardly-directed driving lever 84 fulcrumed at Bl. The upper end of this driving lever 84 has in it a hole 85 through which the free end of the lever arm 28 siidably extends with play. When the line-space lever 22 is swung from the position shown in Figure 1 towards the right-hand in order to rotate the platen and feed the master sheet for line-spacing purposes, its arm 28 swings about its pivot pin 24 and by means of the driving lever 84 and link 82, rocks the lever 80 in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figures 2, 4 and 5, whereby the pawl 14, in engagement with the ratchet wheel 12, is moved endwise and rotates the take-up spool 52 an angular distance equivalent to one tooth of its ratchet wheel.

Change-over mechanism comprising a changeover lever 85 is also provided for moving the pawl 14 into driving engagement with the ratchet wheel 10,. when it is desired to use the spool 58 as a take-up spool. This lever 86 has a circular end 88 that is freely rotatable about the pivot pin i8. This circular part 88 lies close to thefulcrumed end of the pawl 14 which extends between two pins 88, 9| that are carried by the circular part 88 of the lever 88, to which a spring 92 is attached in such a position that it tends to hold the lever 85 at either side of its centre of oscillation in which it may be placed. The two pins 90, 9! are spaced so far angularly apart that when the change-over lever 86 is rocked about its fulcrum, the pawl 14' is thrown into, and held in engagement with one or other of the ratchet wheels A second, opposed-tooth, non-return or holding detent 94, also controlled by the change-over lever 86, is provided for preventing reverse movement of that one of the two ratchet wheels 16, 12 which, at any given time, has the driving pawl 14 in engagement with it. This detent 94 is controlled by a spring 83 and is fulcrumed at on the side of the plate 46 away from the pawl 14, and carries between its ends a pin 98 that extends through an arcuate slot in the plate 46 and into As shown in Figures ga'gement with the ratchet wheel 12, the nonretum pawl .is in engagement with the same wheel, and as shown in Figure 6, when the. driving pawl 14 is swung over to the wheel I8, it rocks the non-return pawl 94 over with it in the same described feed mechanism. The pitch of the ratchet teeth of the wheels I0, I2 and the throw of the driving pawl 14 are such that the operation of the line-space lever 22 moves one of the ratchet wheels through an angular distance (e. g., that of one tooth pitch) which gives to the carbon an advance equal to the distance or height of the highest-type character of the machine.

A line-space lever I00 may be set, as usual, into any one of three difi'erent positions indicated I, 2 and 3 in Figures 4, 5 and '1 for providing various line spaces of the typed matter. This lever has its movement limited, as usual, by two pins IOI, I02 that are fixed on the frame plate I2 and extend into an arcuate slot I04 in the lever. The lever I00 has a flat portion I06 constituting a cam on which rests the free end of a spring-pressed pawl I08 that is pivoted at III) on the lower end of the lever 04. For single spacing, the setting lever I00 is in the position I shown in Figure 4-, and for treble spacing,.it is in the position 3 shown in Figure6, while for double spacing. it will be 'in the position 2 indicated in broken lines. Assuming that the parts are in the position shown in Figure 4, and that the linespace lever 22 is shifted at the end of a line for line-spacing, the pawl I08 travels first along the cam I06 and then engages a tooth of the ratchet wheel H2 of the platen and rotates the latter one'tooth until it is arrested by a stop I I4 that is fast on the frame plate I2 and limits the movement of the line-space lever 22 in the line-spacing direction. If the parts are in the position shown in Figure 7, when the line-space lever 22 is shifted, the pawl I08 engages earlier withthe teeth of the ratchet wheel H2 and rotates the platen three teeth before being arrested by the stop II4. In each case, however, the lever 84 of the described feed mechanism linkage is rocked through the same angular distance, and one or other of the spools 50, 52 is rotated the same angular distance to advance the" carbon as described above. Consequently, it will be underj, stood that no matter how many linespaces the line-space lever I00 is set for feeding the master sheet, the carbon 45 isonly advanced the width of the line of typescript. The master sheet 43 may be fed into the machine either from the back or from the front at the top of the platen by feed mechanism comprising the two above-mentioned feed rolls 34, 35 which are approximately the length of the platen and normally lie directly above and close to the writing line The feed roll 35 is connected to the platen by gearing comprising the wheels 38 40 such that both the roll 35, and the platen I8 turn at the same peripheral speed. When, therefore, the platen is rotated, the feed rolls 34, 35 revolve and carry the master sheet around the platen. An idler roll I20 journalled between the side limbs 3i, 32 of the U-frame so as to lie parallel with the feed rolls 34, 35 serves as a guide for holding the master sheet 43 against the platen I 8. When the master sheet is in use in the machine and extends downwards in front of the carbon 45, on reaching the part IIS of the guide IIE, I", it will follow the contour of the latter and sag away from the platen and in so doing avoid contact with the carbon sheet which is pressed tightly against the platen, so that the risk of the master sheet being smea'red by the carbon is diminished.

When typing an inverse master copy, a sheet is fed into the machine around the platen and gripped between the feed rolls 34, 35, adjusted to position and line-spaced in the usual manner. Automatically, with the line spacing of the master sheet, the carbon is advanced by means of the described pawl-and-ratchet feed mechanism one narrow space at a time, so that although the transcript may appear on the master copy with ably attached thereto, and the pawl 14 and detent 94 are switched over so that the empty spool winds up the carbon from the newly inserted spool. Various modifications may be made in th details of construction described above without departing from the invention. For example, instead of using spools for the carbon sheet, rollers maybe employed. Such a roller may be slidably mounted on a square rod having cylindrical ends journalled in bearings in the attachment, one end of which square rod has a ratchet wheel attached to it.

I claim:

1. In a typewriting or like machine of the character described, the combination with a platen, line-space mechanism for rotating the platen; and master-sheet feed means actuated by the line-spacing mechanism for providing typed lines of characters spaced apart on a master sheet that is being produced, of transfer-sheet feed mechanism operable simultaneously with the mastersheet feed means by the line-space mechanism for feeding a strip of transfer material in continuous form to the platen, which transfer-sheet feed mechanism comprises intermittently-operated transfer-sheet feed means that is adapted at each operation thereof to feed said strip through a controlleddistance less than that through which the master sheet is moved, characterized in that the transfer-sheet feed means comprises two spindles, from one of which the strip is to unwind, and about the other of which it is to be wound up after use at the platen, and the mastersheet feed means adapted to feed a master-sheet to line-space it comprises a pair of feed rolls arranged tolie, when in use, near the upper part of the periphery of theplaten above the writing line for providing a top feed of the master sheet.

2. In a typewriting or like machine of the character described, the combination with a platen, line-space mechanism for rotating the *platen, an master-sheet feed means actuated by the lin -spacing mechanism for providing typed lines of characters spaced apart on a master sheet that is being produced, of transfer-sheet feed mechanism operable simultaneously with the master-sheet feed means by the line-space mechanism for feeding a strip of transfer material in continuous form to the platen, which transfersheet feed mechanism comprises'intermittentlyoperated transfer-sheet feed means that is adapted at each operation thereof to feed said strip through a controlled distance less than that through which the master-sheet is moved, ,characterized in that'the transfer-sheet feed means comprises two spindles, from one of which the strip is to unwind, and about the other of which i 'member movable towards and away from the platen, a pair of feed rolls carried by the pivoted member and "arranged to lie, when in use, near the upper part of the periphery of the platen above the writing line, and means operatively connecting the feed rolls, when in their position of use, to the platen to revolve at the same peripheral speed therewith during the line-spacing operation.

3. In a typewriting or like machine of the character described, the combination with a platen, a gear wheel rotatable therewith, linespace mechanism for rotating the platen, and master-sheet feed means actuated by the linespacing mechanism for providing typed lines of characters spaced apart on a master-sheet that is being produced, of transfer-sheet feed mechanism operable by the line-space mechanism for feeding a strip of transfer material in continuous form to the platen, which transfer-sheet feed mechanism comprises intermittently-operated transfer-sheet feed means that is adapted at each operation thereof to feed said strip through a controlled distance less than that through which the master-sheet is moved, characterized in that the transfer-sheet feed means comprises two spindles, from one of which the strip is to unwind, and about the other of which it is to be wound up after use at the platen, and the master-sheet feed-means comprises a U-shaped frame mounted to swing towards and away from the platen, a pair of feed rolls carried by the U-shaped frame and arranged to lie, when in use, near the upper part of the periphery of the platen above the writing line, one of which feed rolls carries a pinion arranged to mesh with said gear wheel,

when the U-shaped frame is swung into its operative position, and to rotate the feed rolls at the same peripheral speed as the platen during the line-spacing operation.

4. In a typewriting or like machine of the character described, the combination with aplaten, line-space mechanism for rotating the platen, and master-sheet feed means actuated by the line-spacing mechanism for providing typed lines of characters spaced apart on a master-sheet that is being produced, of transfer-sheet feed use at the platen, the master-sheet feed-means comprises a pair of feed .rolls arranged to lie. when in use, near the upper part of the periphery of the platen above the writing line for providing a top feed of the master-sheet, and said connecting means comprises manually-operable changeover mechanism arranged selectively to place either of the two spindles at will into driving engagement with, and to disengage the other spindle from the line-space mechanism.

HERBERT ETHERIDGE. 

